[LM24] Book recommendations

[claude2cv]

To while,away the time until we get some proper news, would anyone care to nominate any good books, especially new ones.

To kick off, Damon Hill's autobiography Watching the Wheels is very good. For Christmas I got Adrian Newey's autobiography How to Design a Car, not finished it get, but it USA fascinating insight I to the world of motor racing and what goes in to getting a car in track and working well. The latter book has been available in Asda for £10.

Sean

[Aysedasi]

Not necessarily what you had in mind Sean, but this is a book and it was a Christmas present from my son, who happens to work for Porsche. A very large (17.5"x12") book of photographs from the 2016 Le Mans.....

[claude2cv]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

Not necessarily what you had in mind Sean, but this is a book and it was a Christmas present from my son, who happens to work for Porsche. A very large (17.5"x12") book of photographs from the 2016 Le Mans.....

Lucky you. Was it just made for company use?

Sean

[Aysedasi]

Yep......

[Badlands99]

Okay ......

Not the cheapest book around @ £75 but worth EVERY penny .....

'25 years of GT Racing"

An appreciation of Stephane Ratel and the SRO Organisation.

400+ pages with an awful lot of pics that I haven't seen before and some great articles on drivers, cars and series ............

Big coffee table book but a real work of art!

[Samoan Attorney]

Originally Posted by Badlands99

Okay ......

Not the cheapest book around @ £75 but worth EVERY penny .....

'25 years of GT Racing"

An appreciation of Stephane Ratel and the SRO Organisation.

400+ pages with an awful lot of pics that I haven't seen before and some great articles on drivers, cars and series ............

Big coffee table book but a real work of art!

Grab it while you can as it is almost sold out. Glad you liked, took 18 months of graft, not perfect but close...................

[VIVA GT]

Every year my commanding officer buys me a great Motor-Racing book for Christmas. This year she excelled herself and bought me three:
How to build a car by Adrian Newey was the first that I read and found it both interesting and entertaining. (Although I'd never met the guy I always assumed he was a bit stuffy & serious, now I know that's not the case). Plus, the more I hear about life at Williams F1, the less fun that all sounds!
The second was The Mechanic, the secret world of the F1 pitlane by Marc 'Elvis' Priestley. Marc was a McLaren mechanic and it's a very interesting to learn some of the behind the scenes information about things that happened such as 'spygate' and so on.
I've now just started the third, Life to the Limit - my autobiography by Jenson Button. I've only just started this one, but it is written in a very entertaining style almost as if JB is sitting next to you telling the stories.
When I've finished these I have my own Christmas present to myself to read, The Last Train to Cockfosters, which is a five volume set written about his life and motorsport by British Legend Dave Brodie. I've read extracts from this on his website and typically it's not as polished as the others I've mentioned (according to the notes on the bookmark, this was intended by the author) but id does seem to be full of very interesting and typically outrageous stories which I am looking forward to reading.

[chernaudi]

Just bought Champion Racing: A Little Bit Of Magic a few days ago. Goes from the teams beginnings to disbandment to the present day of Champion Porsche and Champion Motorsport.

Got mine direct from Champion Motorsport, and probably the cheapest place to get them unless you want a used one from Amazon or Ebay.

[rich07]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

Just bought Champion Racing: A Little Bit Of Magic a few days ago. Goes from the teams beginnings to disbandment to the present day of Champion Porsche and Champion Motorsport.

Got mine direct from Champion Motorsport, and probably the cheapest place to get them unless you want a used one from Amazon or Ebay.

I found that in a bookstore locally but had a dilemna. Buy it or for the same price the 2005 and 2006 FIA GT annuals. I didnt have enough cash to buy all three It was a hard choice but FIA GT was what got me into sportscar so I went with that.

Still have the Champion book on the list though.

I have enjoyed the Haynes book on various aircraft so the Jaguar Group C title looks pretty appealing.

Apparently there is a book regarding the Prodrive Ferrari 550 underway, possibly for release sometime this year.

[Starfish Primer]

I got this xmas the Haynes book on the Group C Jaguars. I still haven´t read it but seems ok for the the price.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jaguar-XJR-...s=Jaguar+XJR-9

[Mekola]

The Quentin Spurring books about the history of Le Mans 24H are worth reading...

[Alan52]

Originally Posted by Mekola

The Quentin Spurring books about the history of Le Mans 24H are worth reading...

They are the best motor racing history books I have ever read.

[John Elwin]

For anyone interested in 'behind the scenes' life in at the more specialised end of the British motor industry, Oliver Winterbottoms's "A Life in Car Design", published by Veloce, is a riveting read.

Oliver began life as a Jaguar apprentice in the early 1960's before moving on to Lotus where he was responsible for the design of the Elite & Éclat, amongst other things. Subsequently he went on to design the 'wedge' range of TVR's, but later returned to Lotus, as well as working in the industry in the USA & China.

For an engineer, Oliver is an excellent writer, both informative & entertaining. He pulls no punches & tells it as it is - always has & always will! No doubt the book will have ruffled a few feathers but it's a damn good read.

[GingerPixel]

AJ Baime's Go Like Hell is an excellent telling of the Ford vs Ferrari battles of the 60s.

Tony Southgate's book is great.

I'm trying to get through Jenson's at the moment, but his ghostwriters appear to be studying for their GCSEs.

[coppice]

GCSEs? Johnny Herberts's little helper struggled at playschool, judging by some of the errors in the end product...

[skycafe]

Originally Posted by GingerPixel

AJ Baime's Go Like Hell is an excellent telling of the Ford vs Ferrari battles of the 60s.

Agree 100% The old world versus the new world. A company stepping into something they had not really done much of (Ford) and taking on the masters of the craft (Ferrari)

[Samoan Attorney]

Originally Posted by skycafe

Agree 100% The old world versus the new world. A company stepping into something they had not really done much of (Ford) and taking on the masters of the craft (Ferrari)

I struggled with it from the start.............the passage concerning the 1955 race was utter tosh.........'Levegh' being frightened during the opening stint......how would anyone know in the absence of radios?...and while he may have been slowest of the Mercedes squad, he was faster than virtually all the Jaguar team....and then Hawthorne being completely blameless for the events leading to the Mercedes flying into the crowd......most risible was the claim Racers came to Le Mans to become champions. And of the many champions crowned here, Hawthorn was the fastest of them all.

Chris Nixon's sublime Mon Ami Mate gives a rather different account.............I know which I accept. There were other mistakes that a good editor would have spotted.............all that being said the book reads well and at pace.............better on setting the scene from the Ford perspective, than being a historical reference.

Mon Ami Mate has recently been reprinted by Chaters and is an essential addition to the library of any enthusiast who wishes a greater understanding of '50s motor sport. I believe that there is currently a deal that includes the DvD Race to Immortality available on the Chaters' website.

[Victor_RO]

If we're at F1 driver autobiographies, what I really liked and admired about Damon Hill's book is that it was done without a ghostwriter; he acknowledged he had some assistance from Maurice Hamilton but he wrote it by himself in the end. And it does sound like Damon's words when reading it.

[Hawkwood]

Anyone got any recommendations for the early years of Le Mans, or how the race started etc?
English-language ones.

Thanks to Mekola's post above I've already got the Quentin Spurring ones added to my Amazon list to keep an eye on!

[John Elwin]

Originally Posted by Hawkwood

Anyone got any recommendations for the early years of Le Mans, or how the race started etc?
English-language ones.

Thanks to Mekola's post above I've already got the Quentin Spurring ones added to my Amazon list to keep an eye on!

Brooklands Books produced a series of books, roughly decade by decade, that are a compilation of period magazine Le Mans race reports.

Alternatively, 'Le Mans 24 Hours' by the late Brian Laban will give you a good overview of the history.

[Aysedasi]

The Laban book is a very good read, better than the one by Clausager, but I've read that several times too and it goes very cheaply on eBay.

[isynge]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

The Laban book is a very good read, better than the one by Clausager, but I've read that several times too and it goes very cheaply on eBay.

While very much appreciating that time passes Clausager's work was the one that educated the teenage me about the history of the race and had a turn of phrase that kept me interested throughout and thirty or so years later has me falling back on Wimpffen as a go-to record.

Does that help?

[Aysedasi]

Agreed Ian. The Clausager book was the first I ever bought on Le Mans. In fact, I think I have a second copy somewhere. I picked it up for pennies on Ebay thinking 'I'll make a few bob on that', only to find out that it really doesn't seem to have that much second hand value....


Edit.

I mean - just take a look at this......!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Le-Mans-b....c100706.m4781

[CTD]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

Agreed Ian. The Clausager book was the first I ever bought on Le Mans. In fact, I think I have a second copy somewhere. I picked it up for pennies on Ebay thinking 'I'll make a few bob on that', only to find out that it really doesn't seem to have that much second hand value....


Edit.

I mean - just take a look at this......!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Le-Mans-b....c100706.m4781

Or this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-li...7757835&sr=8-1

[Aysedasi]

Yep, cheap as frites......